nyancrimew replies:
ok so .io is a "fun" lesson in colonialism and technology, like all two letter top level domains (yes all of them) it's a country domain belonging to a country, io being the british indian oceans territory, an archipelago in the indian ocean. .io domains became so trendy because they're easily marketable to tech people (io can stand for input/output), it looks kinda cool and at the time domains with .io were highly available with not many websites being created on the islands.

however .io is not like other small islands with highly wanted tlds such as .ai or .to, where the islands make millions off of domain sales and can rely on them as a big pillar of their economy. all profits from .io sales go to the UK, and despite a fight to get control over their tld the islands get nothing, not only did the native population get displaced in land deals and colonialism but their colonizer also heavily profits off of the territories sudden (indirect) trendyness with tech startups.

don't buy .io domains, don't support the british empire.

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[–] grue 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm not sure .io should even exist. Why would the Chagossians call themselves anything that would abbreviate to "IO" to begin with?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Because it's the British Indian Ocean Territory and the British colonizers called them that. Fuck them.

[–] grue 6 points 2 weeks ago

Exactly my point: .io should never have existed because BIOT itself should never have existed.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

.ch and .cg are already taken, so maybe .cs would fit? Still, with .io being as popular as it is, I think it'd be well worth keeping around if the proceeds from it could go towards the Chagossians